João Gomes Cravinho led this Sunday in the Angolan capital, Luanda, representing the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrel, the 6th ministerial meeting within the scope of the Angola-EU Joint Path.
The head of Portuguese diplomacy highlighted, at the opening of the meeting, that the world has changed very significantly since the 5th ministerial meeting, held in September 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, so today is the time to reflect on these changes and see the best way to act in this relationship.
The EU and Angola have had a strong partnership for more than 30 years, highlighted João Gomes Cravinho, and the Angola-EU Joint Path, an instrument for identifying priorities, is unique in the European organization's external relations framework.
"I believe that it is an instrument that has a lot of potential, that we can now take advantage of this moment to explore all of its potential", he said.
The Portuguese official noted that at this 6th meeting two axes of cooperation between the EU and Angola will be explored, namely "the Angolan executive's ambitious reform agenda to boost the country's socioeconomic development and the diversification of its economy", and the its partnership within the regional framework in Africa and at an international level, "which is currently experiencing extremely difficult and delicate times".
In turn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, stressed that the ministerial meeting of the Angola-EU Joint Path is taking place in a context characterized by increasingly complex challenges facing States and their respective institutions, with the affirmation of multilateralism is "undoubtedly the best option" to face the various challenges arising from the current context of international politics.
"Therefore, we cannot fail to emphasize the importance of our cooperation mechanism, as we are convinced that cooperation between the Republic of Angola, the European institutions and its Member States, will be strengthened and more comprehensive", highlighted Téte António in his intervention.
Téte António highlighted as results of this cooperation the summit of heads of state on the Global Gateway, in Brussels, Belgium, which allowed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the Lobito Corridor, the recent Investment Facilitation Agreement signed in Luanda and the fixed positioning between both in international forums, among others.
The official also said that the meeting serves to assess the current state of cooperation and fix new initiatives with a view to deepening bilateral cooperation relations.
